HB-264 K-12 School Energy Performance Contracting

Ohio School Rebate and Energy Conservation Programs

What is the SPC?
In 1985, the Ohio General Assembly passed a law that allows school districts the opportunity to make improvements to their district’s buildings and use the cost savings to pay for the improvements. The law allows districts to borrow funds without having to pass a ballot issue for the authority to borrow. Nearly 500 school districts have taken advantage of this law since its inception. What types of improvements can be included? The program defines “energy conservation measures” as an installation, modification, or a remodeling of an existing building to reduce energy consumption.

These improvements may include any of the following:

Insulation of the building

New storm windows and doors

Upgrades or replacements to the heating, ventilating, or air conditioning (HVAC) system

New energy control systems

Replacements of existing lighting systems

Caulking or weather stripping

As stated above, the advantage of this program is that your project—for example, a new HVAC system installation—is paid for using the savings that the system will make over time, and the equipment and project are paid for by the state. That means your school district makes substantial improvements to buildings with virtually no upfront cost.

How do we get started?

First, the school board must contract a licensed architect, engineer, or experienced energy conservation firm (like Energy Optimizers, USA) to generate a report containing an analysis and recommendations of energy conservation measures. These measures must significantly reduce energy consumption and operating costs.

The report shall include all costs of such measures and estimates of the amounts by which energy consumption and operating costs will be reduced. This analysis must use the energy consumption for at least one year. The energy conservation measures must save in energy, operational and maintenance costs over fifteen years, an amount equal to or exceeding the cost of implementing the measures.

Then, the school board must create a “school energy proposal” and submit it to the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission for review. Upon approval, the work begins! In addition to the ongoing work as detailed in the proposal, districts in the program must provide annual savings reports to the OFCC.

We realize that processes like this can be challenging, and that’s why we’re here to help. Call us at (937) 679-4417, and we’ll talk about how we can help you get started.

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